Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Old Codger]

The guy I'm basically learning to 3D model for wants a more-or-less standard cargo module. He also wants some connecting modules. Here is the T-shaped connecting module. No textures but materials applied. I swear the green is honest-to-goodness military olive drab. Did a google search and copied the RGB numbers in exactly. You would not believe what a pain in the bahoogies those 4 little lifting points were. But I kinda like how they turned out. Figure on saving them as a .3ds and reusing them. Unless somebody can tell me an easier way to use objects from one .an8 project in another. Always open to new things.

[Claude]

Menu Object/Import. Change file type from 3ds to an8.

[ENSONIQ5]

Regarding the lifting points, I'm not sure what method you used to build them but (like so many things in Anim8or) there are several different approaches you could have taken.  The method outlined below took about 5 minutes, including the time to screenshot the steps.

Start with an N-gon, setting the number of steps to whatever seems reasonable (max is 100, in the example below I set it to 24). Copy/paste and enlarge the copy so there are two concentric circles, being the lifting point 'hole' and the outer rounded top part (2nd image).  Select both circles, Build > Join Splines, then Build > Extrude.  In the extrude dialog ensure end caps are selected and choose the extrusion axis that's towards you (ie. the axis not shown at bottom left of the screen - green arrow in the third image below).  Pull the points in the bottom part of the outer circle into a squared-off shape, snapping to the grid (4th image).  Adjust thickness of the object if required.

I should point out that I'm not saying this is the 'best' method, just a quick one.  The best method to use in any case depends largely on the ultimate purpose of the model, for example if the intention was to smooth or subdivide the object it would be better to use a method that doesn't create 3-sided polygons (such as using the lathe tool to create the 'donut' in step 3 before pulling the points out).  The Join Splines and Extrude tools can be a quick way to create complex perforated objects, such as the second attachment.

[Old Codger]

I started with a cylinder, extruded the outer faces then merged the original end cap to get the "washer". The problem then was that I decided to smooth the result and it really threw the geometry out of whack. I think if I had not done the smoothing and had started with more longitudinal divisions it would never have occurred to me to do the smoothing. I'll study your explanation and graphic examples. Not too proud to crib from someone who knows what the heck they're doing. To add the "lift points" to the main body I did a copy of the lift point, selected the other object then started pasting. LOL Unfortunately the new lift points showed up at the origin and I had to move them up to clear the module. Fortunately whatever is pasted is automatically selected so moving them up was a matter of holding down the left mouse button and moving the mouse "up".